Tickets are now on sale to the general public for the Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet, which invests Shakespeare's drama with a new dynamic, featuring Orlando Bloom ("The Lord of the Rings") and Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad (Stick Fly, The Trip to Bountiful) as an interracial pair of young lovers doomed by intolerance.

Orlando Bloom
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Tony Award nominee David Leveaux will helm the production that has been conceived with the Capulets as an all-black family and the Montagues as an all-white household.

It will begin previews Aug. 24 towards a Sept. 19 opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Leveaux has staged Arcadia, Cyrano de Bergerac, Nine, The Glass Menagerie and Jumpers on Broadway, among others.

In addition to Bloom as Romeo and Rashad as Juliet, the production features Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell (Follies, Dead Accounts) as the Nurse, with Tony nominee Joe Morton (Raisin, Art) as Lord Capulet.

According to producers, "In this new production, the members of the Montague household will be white, and the blood relatives of the Capulet family will be black. While race defines the family lineages, the original cause of the ‘ancient quarrel’, passed down by successive generations to their young, has been lost to time. Shakespeare’s dramatization of the original poem sets the two young lovers in a context of prejudice, authoritarian parents, and a never ending cycle of ‘revenge.’ Against this background, the strength of their love changes the world."

Producers have also announced that 100 tickets per performance will be set aside at $20 for purchase by students and educators.